This is unimportant. I know that. But the unimportant things drive us crazy, I think because there are so many of them, and because we’re supposed to not let them bother us. They all bother me. There’s a book called Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff. Well, sorry, but I sweat the small stuff. In fact, the smaller the stuff is, the more I sweat.
For example, when I look for something and it isn’t where it’s supposed to be and I have to spend fifteen minutes searching, the thought of that needlessly lost time pushes me ever so closer to the edge of my sanity. Now before you get the wrong idea, I’m not one of those people who draws the outline of his tools on the garage wall so they all get put back in exactly the right place. I don’t even have a garage, and our tools are mostly piled on top of each other in boxes. I’m talking about something like the ongoing stapler crisis in our house.
I keep my stapler on my desk, somewhere to the left of my computer monitor. The stapler doesn’t have a precise location, but it’s supposed to be somewhere over there on the left. That’s where I always put it. And because that’s where I always put it, that’s where everyone else in the house finds it when they need a stapler. We have several staplers and the people I’m referring to actually have their own, but they don’t put things back and so they have no idea where their staplers are. But that doesn’t matter because they always know where my stapler is: just to the left of the computer. It’s faster, in fact, to go get my stapler than it is to look for their own. They just take the stapler and use it and then they put it down wherever they happen to be at the time. They don’t return it. Now here’s the injustice of it all: When I (the responsible one who puts things back) goes to use my stapler, it isn’t there. It isn’t even on my desk. Sometimes it’s in another room. I don’t know which room. I only know it isn’t in this room because I’ve torn the place apart and it isn’t here. Neither are my tape dispenser, scissors, and calculator. But it isn’t just the stuff I refer to as mine. The vacuum cleaner. Is there ever any reason to spend more than one minute hunting for the vacuum cleaner? The blender. Shouldn’t it at least be in the kitchen? The lint brush. I see that thing every single day in the same place, and I use it maybe once a decade. But the last time I tried to find the lint brush, it was in the car. In the car.
At the end of the year, I’ve spent hours looking for things that I always put back. Meanwhile, all of the other people who never put things back spend no time at all looking for them. This seems to be some fundamental law of nature, and I suppose I should take comfort in that fact. It’s unchangeable, widespread, and it’s never going to stop. Furthermore, it’s unimportant. It’s small stuff. I already know that. And I’m getting sweaty just thinking about it.
Amiable Amiable
June 22, 2010
The scissors are what get me! Or the cordless phone. I’ve missed so many calls because I can’t find where my family has left it – even with the ringing! And don’t get me going about how, when I do find it, the battery dies just as I’m about to say, “HELLO, I’m here!”
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bronxboy55
June 23, 2010
I forgot about the cordless phone. And the tape measure: we have five or six of them! I don’t know why we have so many, but the bigger mystery is, where the heck are they?
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Marie M
June 24, 2010
Are you sure my husband didn’t collaborate with you on this, or out-and-out ghost-write it?
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bronxboy55
June 24, 2010
So there are other odd couples out there?
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Brown Sugar Britches
July 20, 2011
i have this problem, but it is within the kitchen. i live with my aunt, but the kitchen is “mine”. she even told me so. i am very particular about where things should be placed and the reason is that when it comes time to use them, i don’t want to have to hunt and find them behind something that hasn’t been used or touched since i moved in. but as sure as i’m writing to you now, i most always have to hunt for something, it is never where i placed it, where it’s supposed to be and the worst part is that she didn’t even use it. she moved it out of the way to get to the one thing that she uses, once in a blue moon that is where it is supposed to be but in trying to find it she misplaced and replaced everything in the cabinets. ugh.
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bronxboy55
August 3, 2011
That’s a tough situation, BSB: her house, your kitchen. It’s especially frustrating when you know the thing you’re looking for has to be there, because it’s a kitchen item and there’d be no reason for anyone to put it in a different room. (On the other hand, I have actually searched in vain for the blender.)
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tanya
October 18, 2011
I can identify with every word of this post! Fortunately, my lint brush never goes missing because the others in my house could care less if they have cat hair stuck to their rear ends! But really, no one ever puts stuff back except me…… at least I know others have this problem too!
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bronxboy55
November 15, 2011
Tanya, I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to reply. I’m also glad to know others have this problem, although I realize how frustrating it can be.
Thanks for the comment.
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buckwheatsrisk
February 29, 2012
Tupperware lids that never match the containers!
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bronxboy55
October 27, 2012
Or lids that have disappeared entirely. Where could they go?
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buckwheatsrisk
October 27, 2012
maybe where ever the socks go when doing laundry??
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